Red-backed Shrike - 1894

Lanius collurio

A summer visitor, very rarely seen in the north of the county.

Mr. Dix states that he had only once seen it in his district. When we used to drive into Haverfordwest from Stone Hall we frequently saw a pair of these birds on the telegraph wires by the roadside, as we drew near to the town. But some seasons would pass without our seeing any. Mr. Tracy thought the Red-backed Shrike was "common, and pretty equally distributed in pairs over the county," but we must join issue with him, as we have never once seen a Red-backed Shrike in the Fishguard or St. David's district, nor, indeed, at any place in the north of the county. Mr. Jeffereys informs us that a pair nest annually in some low bushes on the Black Rock, a mile or two out of Tenby, and that he has never heard of any others in the Tenby district. And Mr. E. W. H. Blagg tells us that he found a nest, with four fresh eggs, June 21st, 1887, at Tenby.

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands